Average Connecticut Victim Lost $500 To Internet Crimes, Scams

HARTFORD — Nondelivery of merchandise or payment, identity theft, and auction fraud.

These were the most common complaints made by Connecticut consumers to the joint FBI/National White Collar Crime Center’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year, according to its 2010 Internet Crime Report.

The report includes a state-by-state breakdown of complaints along with national statistics.

With nondelivery at 19.3 percent, identity theft at 18.4 percent, and auction fraud at 10.6 percent, the top three complaints make up nearly half of all 2,551 complaints to the IC3 last year from Connecticut.

“This data is extremely helpful in helping regulators and law enforcement to determine where precious resources can best be allocated to detect and defend against Internet crime,” Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein said March 1. “We encourage Connecticut consumers to contact us as well if they feel they have been victimized.” 

Most Connecticut victims filing complaints were male, between 40 and 59 years old. In cases where perpetrator information was available, nearly 75 percent were men and more than half resided in California, Florida, New York, Texas, the District of Columbia, or Washington State. The highest numbers of perpetrators outside the US were from the United Kingdom, Nigeria, and Canada.

After nondelivery of payment/merchandise, auction fraud and identity thefts, rounding out the top ten Connecticut-reported crime types were: miscellaneous fraud, scams impersonating the FBI, hacking, advance fee fraud, spam, credit card fraud, and overpayment fraud.

New scams or an increase in established scams in 2010 included those involving:

*Telephone calls claiming victims are delinquent on payday loans.

*Online apartment and house rental and real estate scams used to swindle consumers out of thousands of dollars.

*Denial-of-service attacks on cellphones and landlines used as a ruse to access victims’ bank accounts.

*Fake e-mails seeking donations to disaster relief efforts after last year’s earthquake in Haiti.

With the total reported loss for Connecticut exceeded $3.3 million, the total median dollar loss for all complaints from Connecticut that reported a dollar loss was just over $500.

Two-thirds of the losses fell in the $100 to $5,000 range, while the top dollar loss complaint totaled $200,000 and involved identity theft.

Overall, ages of the victims were fairly evenly distributed, with 46 percent falling between the ages of 40 to 59 years. Seventeen percent of victims were in their twenties, 16 percent in their thirties, and nearly 17 percent were over the age of 60.

 “Anyone who uses a computer is at risk for scams and fraud,” Mr Rubenstein said. “Consumers always need to take strong security measures by making sure home computers have the latest security software, by protecting personal identification information, and by being highly suspicious if someone offers an online deal that’s too good to be true.”

Further, the commissioner urged anyone who thinks they spotted a scam to file a complaint with his office as well as with the IC3. The full national and Connecticut report and consumer complaint forms are available on the Department of Consumer Protection website at www.ct.gov/dcp.